| Year | Average pace(km/h) of winner | Total distance(km) | Number of stages | Finished the race | Number of entries | Nationality of winner | Team of winner | Initial city | Initial country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | 32.23 | 4898 | 23 | 78 | 122 | Italy | Italy | Brest | France |
| 1953 | 34.59 | 4476 | 22 | 76 | 119 | France | France | Strasbourg | France |
| 1954 | 33.23 | 4656 | 23 | 69 | 110 | France | France | Amsterdam | Netherlands |
| 1955 | 34.45 | 4495 | 22 | 69 | 130 | France | France | Le Havre | France |
| 1956 | 36.27 | 4498 | 22 | 88 | 120 | France | Nord-Est-Centre | Reims | France |
| 1957 | 34.52 | 4665 | 22 | 56 | 120 | France | France | Nantes | France |
Tour de France tournament analysis
Analysis of Tour de France results from years 1952-2016
Intoduction
The presented dataset (Table 1) contains information about the Tour de France cycling event, held between 1952 and 2016. The Tour de France is a multi-stage cycling race usually held in July across France and neighbouring countries. It is part of the World Tour series.
The prestige of this race is linked to its long history (it is now the oldest cycling race), its great tradition and, above all, the scale of its difficulty. A particularly famous moment is the ascent of the L’Alpe d’Huez pass (see Figure 1): length of ascent - 13.8 km; average slope 7.9% (maximum 12%), elevation - 1126 metres.
Analysis of gathered data
Basic descriptive statistics
| Variable | min | max | median | mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average pace(km/h) of winner | 32.23 | 41.65 | 37.32 | 37.50 |
| Total distance(km) | 3282.00 | 4898.00 | 3946.00 | 3,928.07 |
| Finished the race | 53.00 | 174.00 | 117.00 | 114.81 |
| Number of entries | 100.00 | 210.00 | 170.00 | 160.94 |
The analysis of a given topic should start with basic information about this set, which already allows us to notice the first correlations or observations (see Table 2). For example, in the columns for median and mean, we can see how small the deviations are between the two measures.
Starting towns of the Tour de France
Initial country | Sum |
|---|---|
France | 47 |
Netherlands | 6 |
Belgium | 3 |
Germany | 3 |
Switzerland | 1 |
Luxembourg | 1 |
Spain | 1 |
Ireland | 1 |
United Kingdom | 2 |
As you can see from the chart (see Table 3), it cannot be assumed that the race always starts in France. This can be seen even better in the map below (see Figure 2). It shows how geographically diversed the tournament is.
Who rode best?
The table below (see Table 4) helps to answer the above question. It allows us to see that it was the Irish (!) who drove the most on average, while the highest speeds were achieved by the British.
Results | ||
|---|---|---|
Nationality of winner | Average distance | Average pace |
Italy | 37.20 | 4,156.40 |
France | 35.94 | 4,214.30 |
Luxembourg | 38.26 | 3,980.45 |
Spain | 38.57 | 3,769.34 |
Netherlands | 34.35 | 4,219.00 |
Belgium | 35.73 | 3,989.83 |
USA | 37.59 | 3,624.00 |
Ireland Irish | 36.65 | 4,231.00 |
Denmark | 39.23 | 3,907.00 |
Germany | 39.23 | 3,950.00 |
Australia | 39.79 | 3,430.00 |
United Kingdom | 39.92 | 3,448.68 |
Osiągi zwycięskich narodowości | ||
The distribution of average distance to average speed is visualised in the plot below (Figure 3).
However, several observations were omitted from the above analysis. These are the rows containing NA (unspecified) values found, for example, in the Narodowość zwycięzcy column.
| Year | Average pace(km/h) of winner | Total distance(km) | Number of stages | Finished the race | Number of entries | Nationality of winner | Team of winner | Initial city | Initial country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 40.27 | 3686.0 | 20 | 141 | 180 | NA | NA | Le Puy de Fou | France |
| 2000 | 39.56 | 3662.0 | 21 | 128 | 180 | NA | NA | Futuroscope | France |
| 2001 | 40.02 | 3446.0 | 20 | 144 | 189 | NA | NA | Dunkirk | France |
| 2002 | 39.93 | 3282.0 | 20 | 153 | 189 | NA | NA | Luxembourg | France |
| 2003 | 40.94 | 3427.0 | 20 | 147 | 189 | NA | NA | Paris | France |
| 2004 | 40.55 | 3391.1 | 20 | 147 | 188 | NA | NA | Liege | Belgium |
| 2005 | 41.65 | 3608.0 | 21 | 155 | 189 | NA | NA | Fromentine | France |
We are referring to the historic events of the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005, when Lance Armstrong, American road cyclist, Olympian and ‘author’ of one of the biggest doping scandals in sports history, triumphed on the podium seven times. On 24 August 2012, he was retrospectively banned from competition from 1 August 1998 and disqualified from professional cycling for life for using prohibited boosters.
Team of winner | Nationality of winner | Average distance | Average pace |
|---|---|---|---|
Lance Armstrong | 3,500.3 | 40.42 |
The table above shows Armstrong’s average performance. It is worth comparing his average speed with the fastest nation at the tournament - the British. The difference is (km/h):
[1] NaN
The American, thanks to doping , he rode on average the fastest in the entire tournament in the years under discussion.
Ratio of those enrolled to those who completed the competition
The Percent column in the graph below expresses the percentage ratio of the variable Number of entries to Finished the race in the years in question. From the table below we do not notice any particular correlation between the years and the relationship in question.
Year | Percentage |
|---|---|
(2010,2016] | 84 |
(2003,2010] | 80 |
(1984,1990] | 72 |
(1997,2003] | 72 |
(1965,1971] | 70 |
(1978,1984] | 70 |
(1990,1997] | 69 |
(1971,1978] | 66 |
(1952,1958] | 61 |
(1958,1965] | 59 |
Number of stages vs. total distance
The graphic below shows the ratio of the variable Number of stages to the variable Total distance(km) by country where the race has started at least twice. From the graph we can read the obvious relationship - the more stages, the longer the race.